Dave Preston of WTOP gets Nestor ready for the Jayden Daniels Experience and the new look, new ownership 4-1 Washington Commanders coming to Baltimore to stir up the Battle For Maryland.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Washington Commanders, Baltimore Ravens, Jaden Daniels, Dan Quinn, new ownership, fan experience, stadium improvements, NFL draft, football reboot, team stability, media access, game preview, fourth down strategy, offensive efficiency, playoff hopes
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Dave Preston
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N, S T, dazzle Baltimore, Baltimore positive. It is a big, big week around here, a rare Washington at Baltimore tussle on Friday. We’re gonna be pizza, John. It’s my birthday weekend. It’s Luke’s birthday. We have Maryland scratch offs in the Maryland lottery of the Ravens scratch offs to give away, beginning on Friday. And it’s been a lucky batch at Costas and before that, at fade. So we hope to have a little pizza. They do have a crab cake at Pizza John’s and our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, powering up the Maryland crab cake tour as well as the oyster tour. And our friends at curio wellness and last but never least, Jiffy Lube multi care, getting Luke back and forth to Owings Mills to get all of us ready. I am reaching to some of my friends down in the district, as they say, and folks to cover the former Redskins now the commanders and have been through a lot of bad football as well as a lot of bad treatment from the Snyder family. This guy is one of those guys he has survived on old blu ray DVD James Bond films, as well as his well earned status as a college football AP voter as well as basketball. He covers college sports, but all of the real things as well. For w, T, O, P, down in the capital the free world, the nation’s capital, we welcome our defending champion Dave Preston back on the program. You can find him at Dad presto, out in the real world. Look, man, we don’t have any pussy footing around. No. James Bond this week, we’re not going to get into the Roger Moore, Sean Connery thing. We’re not doing any of that. We’re going to get into the Jaden Daniels Lamar Jackson thing. And you’re on your transport. You’re not like a Redskin fan. You’re not a hail to the guy all that you you came in. You’re a New Hampshire guy. You went to high school in the area where my wife came from, but you part of this Washington football thing for a couple decades now. And watching it, I look at the Orioles and say, how does it get regrown with the empty seats last week? And I think every the lurid history of everything that’s going on down in Landover with the football team, it feels like this is what it looks like when it comes back to life and
Dave Preston 02:05
it’s, it’s incredible Nestor seeing this just the usually it doesn’t take this long, or usually it doesn’t arrive this quickly. For reboot, there’s a long process we witnessed. The Washington Wizards who the front office brass just a couple weeks ago said that, oh no, we’re not building now. We’re at we’re still descending. We’re still cratering. So the fact that they’re four and one for the first time since 2008 the days of Jim Zorn that year did not end well. But the fact that they’re playing good football, the fact that they’re going to have that they have a Jim Nance Tony Romo game in week six of this new era with Dan Quinn, with Jaden Daniels, is pretty incredible. The fact that there was a fan base here this past Sunday at Northwest Stadium, which is not on the northwest side of the beltway, it’s the credit union. That’s a long story, but it’s exciting to see a new fan base you just become infatuated with this new quarterback, with this new coaching staff and with this new ownership, and I’m surprised, we’re wondering when this burgundy and gold bubble’s going to burst, because no matter how good things have been for the last 30 plus years, things do not end well. There was a seven and one start the last year of RFK, that team finished nine and seven out of the playoffs. So, and that’s not the worst things have happened, but all is sunny and it’s morning again in Ashburn and the district, I guess.
Nestor Aparicio 03:30
Yeah, it feels like there have been so many reboots with Snyder and so many coaches. I mean, I had Mike silver on this week, and it was kind of appropriate, because we didn’t plan it that way. Just the week he went up on he’s done a book on the Shanahan tree. And really, the thing is, sort of really envelopes into the Washington time when he was there with RG three and all those coaches and McVeigh and all those guys and Raheem Morris that went on to become coaches in the league. Is that five coaches? I mean, I, you know, I think it was the second Gibbs era. There was a Shannon error. There’s Jay Gruden there. I’m thinking all the people that have, my God, the ball coach was there with Marvin 25 years ago. And I just think about how stinky it’s all been. I know Dan Quinn a little bit through Salisbury, state, and you know, he’s went to college here. Really good man. Did a great job down Atlanta. You know, the whole 2813 or wherever that score was that in that goofy game with Tom Brady. But if I looked at their roster, I looked at their coaches, and the kinds of coaches that they have, and, you know, former Raven coach, Bobby Ingram, different people on their staff, they’ve Tobes, kids on the staff, like I looked through it, I’m like, it looks like a professional outfit. And other than maybe the owner being a little inebriated when he went on ESPN to start his career, I looked at this and said, It doesn’t smell like Dan Snyder anymore. I would ask you as a reporter because, and I’m only asking because I’m still banned by the baseball team here and now banned by the football team here, because that’s wrong. I’m not a real reporter after four. Years, but
Dave Preston 05:00
the capitals love you. The capitals love you. Come on down for the cat surgery. I
Nestor Aparicio 05:04
said, Sergey. I said the baseball thing. I’m trying to figure out when it’s gonna smell and feel different. And I don’t mean you know, one run in 18 innings last week or whatever. I’m talking about the vibe, the Mojo, the humans, the way humans are treated. I’m from Dundalk. I know when I’m being treated poorly. I have a sixth sense about that sort of thing. And I never went to Redskin Park. I never went down there, but I had friends that did. You were one of the many of them. They they gave me a story that was like, even worse than the stuff Angelos was doing up here for long, long stretches of time. And I’m thinking as a as a fan, as a media member who has access to it, and you do, how do you know it’s changed? How do you know it’s different? It
Dave Preston 05:48
just feels it’s one of those things that, when you know, you know down from they repainted the one of the ramps, one in the concourse last year, and cleaned it out hadn’t been cleaned in 1520, years. A lot of stuff just had been neglected. I think what’s the Snyder era was so focused on front of the curtain things, and not worried about what was going on behind the curtains. And, you know, letting that completely fall to shampoos, whether it’s the practice facility, whether it’s, you know, things at the stadium get old, peanuts, raw sewage here and there. You know, the railings falling and collapsing. I think the new ownership, and last year was their first season, they knew that they couldn’t do everything, so they said, Okay, what can we do to make this game day experience just a little bit better? Not the dumpster fire. It was the last 15 years under Snyder and company, and they did that. They’re continuing to make strides. Is it going to be perfect? No, but you know what a winning team, a four in one team, goes a long way to making the nachos taste a little bit better. Makes that $14 beer not seem so expensive. And so it’s a combination of those things. Also, I think ownership is just a lot more friendly, a lot more welcoming. I had a I was at an event last week for the capitals as they’re getting their 50th season and 50th anniversary underway, those two converge, because the lockout, we lost a season way back when had a chance to chat with Zach leonsis. And I just really complimented him and his dad on how the fact that, yes, you know that these guys are making money off of these teams, but Ted Lee ounces, with the capitals, has always appeared to be more of a steward than an actual owner. Yes, he’s making money, but he recognizes the fans have ownership in the in this team, in this franchise, and I think that’s what this new ownership group is trying to do, trying to convey that, yes, we’re collecting the checks, yes, we’re rich, and we’re going to continue to get rich off this product, and we’re cashing the network checks. But you know what? You the fans, you guys are the ones who have invested your lives, rooting for this team, and we respect you. We are just stewards. So I think that is what the ownership group is trying to convey. They’ve also been completely hands off letting the general manager, Adam Peters, take control of things, and he’s been completely he’s been hands off in the regard of letting Dan Quinn coach the team. And when you’ve got a structure like that that we have not had since Jack Kent Cooke was running the show back in the mid 90s,
Nestor Aparicio 08:28
just saying how dysfunctional, right, this can be. I mean, with the Orioles, I mean, I’ve witnessed it for 30 years, and I wrote this letter to Rubik’s sign listing, I’m like, if you can’t acknowledge the trauma all of us have dealt with, as fans, as media, as people who love the franchise or love the city, then you’re lost. If you’re not dealing with that, if you’re just going to ignore that. I can’t ignore that. I can’t ignore the losing seasons. I can’t ignore the sewage that fell out of the stadium. If I’m if I can’t ignore the name change if I was a Redskin fan and became a commander’s fan, I, you know, you live through it. And I have friends that were, I mean, I know you have hard time believing to stay Preston, but I have friends that support the net the Washington National Football League team. I still call them the NFLs, right? And I don’t know if they’re back or not. You know, I have a handful of friends that were season ticket holders. RFK, went down, wore the headdress, you know, Joe Gibbs, the whole deal that they exited 1012, years ago, not recent. They were like, I am at they were out at Shanahan, you know, like, just Yeah, and I was
Dave Preston 09:36
there that day. Was a December game against Kansas City. It was the end of the RG three era. It was basically the end of the Shanahan era, even though there was still some season to play. And the fan, it was one of those games that, as you as you cover games Nestor, you know, there’s a certain rhythm to everything. And at 230 in the afternoon, everybody in that press box. Was right in their gamers. And everybody was like, Okay, how much more of this Do we have to do? Because the game was over by halftime, and the fans had left, the had left FedEx field, and I think a big chunk of the fan base gave up on that day. Some of them are starting to come back. Some of them are at an age now where they’re never going to come back, but if they were, if they had maintained the relationship, they’d still be here. But it’s it’s been a long time. That was 2013 it’s been over a decade since I think a lot of people had faith in this team, and I have faith in the ownership group, I have faith in the front office, and I have faith in the new head coach, because I like what I’ve seen, and I’m going to give them that faith until they prove me otherwise massively, because the end of the Snyder era was just such a nightmare, such a dumpster fire. Dave
Nestor Aparicio 10:48
Preston is here. He’s covered a lot of bad football. He’s covered some good hockey over the course of time as well. He’s down at DC, w, T, O, P, you can follow him anywhere social media goes, real, college football, basketball, insider and expert on all of those things, the Baltimore, Washington juxtaposition. When did you get down here? I mean, you, you famously tell me about waiting tables and Morgan’s out in Vienna and whatever, Tyson, whatever. But how many years have you done 2000 2000
Dave Preston 11:14
I came down in 2000 so the Super Bowl season for the ravens and I had, I still had some ill will. I mean, even though I never spent in that game, by the way, yeah, I never spent a day in Cleveland, you know, living wise. I’ve been there for some Mid American conference tournaments over the years and the like, but I had ill will towards art modell for taking the heart of Cleveland out. So I was just like, oh, it took me a while to embrace what the Ravens have built, and the franchise and the standards that they have set, and you look at them stability, at the coach in the quarterback position, that’s something that the Washington football team has not had the last 1015, years, maybe even 30 years since Mark Rippon started to, you know, have problems, it’s been like, I don’t know if You read your your New Testament, but that first chapter of Matthew where somebody’s begatting Somebody and and, boom, boom, boom, and you go through the generations, that’s what the commander’s coaching or quarterback carousel has felt like for the last 15 to 20 years. And for years we’ve admired just the stability of the ravens, even when things have turned bad. Even when they’ve been stuck with a Kyle bowler, they see it through. They don’t jettison a guy sooner than they should, and perhaps they kept a little I’m a little too long, same with Flacco, but you love what they’ve done on the field and off the field. And I have friends who are Raven fans who travel from Arlington over there, because it’s not that far of a drive. And a lot of them have been are transplants from, you know, from that area, and now live in this area. So it’s, I’m I will be covering Sunday’s game, so I have a chance to say hi to Luke. And I always look forward to going to M and T as well
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
your chat. Steal my love when you enter the press box, the the pint sized Kevin Byrne press box. Um, I was with my my Redskin fan friend. I’m gonna, I’m not gonna out Scotty p but I was with him back in in 1996 and we were in Las Vegas, and I remember getting a stack of clips that I brought on the plane with me in June of 1996 of getting your mind around this, the Ravens haven’t played a game. There’s no internet, so just name the ravens, right? You know what I mean? It’s clips, and we’re at the pool, at the Hard Rock and I was reading about Steve on Moore and reading about Eric Turner, and reading about Vinnie Testaverde and Michael Jackson and Derek Alexander and my my hail, my hgtr buddy. You know, he’s hot and bothered. Ripping was a couple years before that, and Thurman Thomas was three, four years before that. And to your point, art modell is a scumbag. How can he move the team? What are the raisins? What are these purple Barney uniform like? Oh, I got all of that. Ha, ha. Wait, Junior franchise, you’re gonna get relegated, you know, maybe they’ll put you back in the AFL or let you go play in the arena League, or, like it was all of that. It is astonishing how 30 years later, and it feels like 30 minutes ago, I can still feel the heat and that black sand they had at that pool there was awful. Yeah, $12 bottles of Fiji water. And even that was in 1996 I’m blown away at how awful the Washington football thing was just killed in the same way that the baseball thing was killed here. And I have friends that were Redskin Oriole combination fans, and all they’ve done is really suffered. I mean, like, literally just been a lot of suffering. But it is amazing that the Ravens established themselves, and 30 years later, I have a real professional media guy like you at w, T, O, P, coming on, talking about how the ravens are the the benchmark and the the Northern Light for franchises like the Washington commanders. At this point, it, it’s, it’s a travesty. What happened in DC to football really is and
Dave Preston 14:58
Nestor a. Taught in business schools how to, you know, how to build a brand and how to tear one down. You look at the last 30 years, there’s a phrase, and I know that you share a birthday with Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. There’s a song, lovely to see you again. And, yes, and, and there’s a line where Empire is turned back to sand, or something along those where empires have turned back to sand. And it truly it does happen. We look at there was the big radio station here before WTO, P Uh, gained traction, was W M, a l, that station has now been marginalized over the years, and back in the day, was W M, a L, and they carried the Redskins. And the Redskins as a brand suffered, has suffered mightily over the last 20 years, just like the Ravens brand has ascended in the last 20 years. And it just shows you how fragile things are. And in reality, we’re what, maybe seven good or bad life decisions for massively escalating or massively just, you know, going into the gutter. And it’s it’s just a matter of avoiding those seven bad decisions back to back to back to back to back, and trying to make those seven good decisions back to back to back to back. I think that the commanders have made a good decision with the new ownership, with the hiring of Adam Peters, with the hiring of Dan Quinn, with the drafting of Jaden Daniels. Will that be long term? Is this a flash in the pan? You never know. All I know is that I’m looking forward to seeing the top two teams in scoring wise in the NFL competing on the field Sunday, and I can hold my head high when I look to the owner’s box as well
Nestor Aparicio 16:33
Redskins defense. Not much to say. I mean, we’re not working projects 38 you know, I’m looking for a track meet here this week in one way or another, but this Jaden Daniels kid can spin it. I think was very obvious at LSU Luke’s going on and on about him. But give me a little preview of the team and what we’re going to see here, other than a team that’s got a better record and a team that, quite frankly, is coming up here to take the Ravens lunch money. Well, it’s a
Dave Preston 16:56
team that ranks first in the NFL and third down efficiency. They didn’t need to punt, really, for two games, every scoring, every drive they had, I think, in against the Giants and against the Bengals, and maybe even for the bulk of the game against the Cardinals. I think they took a knee at the end of each half. And other than that, they were putting points on the board. It’s amazing how quickly Jaden Daniels has ascended as a starting quarterback in the NFL. The game’s not too fast for him. The league is not too big for him at this time. And you never know with some of these kids that he dropped, look at Caleb Williams with the bears, and don’t they wish that they could have taken Jaden Daniels number one, Cliff kingsbury’s Got a great offensive system that works off of his strengths. Terry McLaurin is able to get open. He had a he had a rough patch to start the season, but he’s gotten better. And it just feels like right now, Cliff Kingsbury is, as you know, coordinating this offense. He’s at the blackjack table, and he’s hitting when he should, and he’s holding what he should, and he’s doubling down when he should. And that’s all you can hope for from an offense. Defensively, they’ve gotten better. They got gashed the first three weeks, when you think about it, but they And granted, Cleveland’s a dumpster fire. Offensively, they held the Browns to 13 points. They held the cardinals who, you know, no they can score points. They put 41 on the board against the Rams. They held them in check. I think. They held the they held the Cardinals to four of 11 on third down, and that was they were one for eight on third down before the game was, you know, the game was over. The last fourth quarter, Cleveland was one for 13. They could their one conversion happened on the last possession. So the defense, in my opinion, behind Bobby Wagner at linebacker, sneaky good. And I think they’re only going to get better. But this is a week to week League, and you never know what’s going to happen. I’m looking forward to Sunday,
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
and they’ve been going forward a fourth down. I mean, is it the same kind of offense where, like you said, they don’t punt? Well, you get into fourth down is just, we’re fourth and four from the 50, we’re just going to go for it. And, I mean, our ball is plays that modern way most of the time, and when you have a quarterback that you know has sleight of hand and has legs, that that’s the way, I mean, that would be an advantage to anyone with a speed quarterback is that you feel more compelled to play fourth down, that you don’t make it, you screw yourself up, but, but the analytics say to go for it when you have a Jaden Daniels, right?
Dave Preston 19:16
And with and with Chris way’s leg, he, you know, anywhere within 50 yards, you know there’s a chance that he’s going to he’s going to, you know, punt it into the end zone. So the maroon zone actually extends for maybe the 30 to the 50. Their kicker has bounced around. So he’s not, you’re not, you’re not talking about an All Pro back there. So maybe you’re more tempted to go for it. You know, before you get to the 30 yard line. Dave
Nestor Aparicio 19:41
Preston is here. His time is short. Last thing capital season starts this week. If I don’t get two seconds of capitals out of you, Leonard will be upset with me. Well, you
Dave Preston 19:49
know what I like about the roster is that they’ve really revamped it for one final cup push. While Alexander ovechkins on this team, he’s going for the record. He should get it next season, maybe. Not, yeah, I don’t think he’s going to have a monster season to get it this year, but he’s going to be close. I do like how they’ve kind of brought in. They’ve brought in so many talented players that I think you might see them get to the second or the third round, if everything works out for them.
Nestor Aparicio 20:15
Dave always appreciated. I love that oveki looks older than me these days. It makes me feel young and spry. Dave Preston can be found at W T O, P and dad, presto. We didn’t get any James Bond in here. No, I owe you one. I’ll see you soon. All right, yes, Dave Preston, W T O, P, with us. R, W N, S T, a crab cake tour in the Baltimore positive moves to Pizza John’s on Friday. We have the Raven scratch offs, the $2 scratch offs. They’ve been a very, very lucky batch. Get on out on Friday our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, keeping our water crystal, clean one and under clean water, as well as our oyster tour. Now out with curio wellness and far and daughter. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive.
